Life through my lens: Mount Asgard

The climbing season on Mount Asgard on Baffin Island is notoriously short. July and August are the two months that often give the best conditions in this great wilderness in north-east Canada. Our expedition, led by Leo Houlding, opted for August. Its original objective was to make a free climb on the south-west face of Mount Asgard (a mountain that only 14 climbers have summited) and make a film about the ascent.

Having read the reports of the exceptionally benign conditions faced by two Belgian climbers, we feared the worst. This happy state of affairs could not possibly hold for another month. As we flew past Asgard at the end of July ready to airdrop our equipment, ominous clouds gathered.

Our team spent two weeks at the base camp studying the towers of Asgard in order to choose the best route. Access to the cliff this late in the season is potentially the most dangerous part, thanks to a constant freeze and thaw process which causes enormous amounts of debris – juggernauts of rock falling from every steep section. It soon became obvious that access to the south-west face was far too dangerous to contemplate.

As feared, the record-breaking temperatures came to a sudden end once we were established on the glacier. As the days rolled by and the inclement weather refused to shift, the team began to wonder if we would even get on to the mountain let alone make a successful ascent.

After two long weeks the skies cleared and the decision was made to climb the Inushuk route, which followed a line straight up the centre of the steep, cold north tower.

Three days later the team was established on a small ledge, 150 metres up the wall, but the temperatures plunged again and for a week a cruelly suffocating cloud clung to the north face, covering everything in an inch of ice. Simply surviving the conditions to reach the summit became the new objective.

Finally, with almost no food or water left, having enduring 11 days on the wall, a second consecutive morning of sunlight lifted the sprits. Whether we reached the summit or not, we knew we would be going down the next day. Here, Leo free-climbed the final pitch – in the spirit of the original objective – clawing with his way to the top, his bandaged fingers over snow-covered holds. But the first “free” ascent of Asgard’s north face would have to wait for another day.